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Art, Expression and Video Games: Exploring Art’s Hidden Language is about gaining in-depth insights into shape language and composition, tracing the lineage of these long-standing techniques from antiquity to contemporary mainstream culture, where Chris Solarski will demonstrate their function in video games and interactive art. Whether you’re a developer of video games, virtual reality, a filmmaker, a gamification expert, psychologist, or simply interested in understanding games as an art form, this talk offers creative tools that can be actioned immediately across transmedia—awakening a new appreciation for art and craft, and changing perceptions of everyday design.

Chris Solarski is an artist-game designer and author specialising in the relationships between traditional art principles and video game aesthetics. His two books are widely considered essential reading, offering an art and narrative-driven game design framework for adaptive gameplay aesthetics that orchestrate the player's physical and emotional experience in progressive ways. Chris' first book—Drawing Basics and Video Game Art (Watson-Guptill 2012)—has been translated into Japanese and Korean and is endorsed by id Software co-founder, John Romero. His second book—Interactive Stories and Video Game Art (CRC Press 2016)—has been described as gaming's equivalent to the screenwriting classic, Story, by Robert McKee and is endorsed by film director Marc Forster, and Assassin's Creed founding member Stéphane Assadourian.
With the support from the Swiss Arts Council, Pro Helvetia, Chris has given talks on interactive storytelling and game art at international venues and organisations including Disney Research, the Smithsonian's landmark The Art of Video Games exhibition, SXSW, GDC Europe, and FMX. Chris is currently developing an indie game based on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. He also lectures at SAE Institute in Zurich and manages the IGDA Switzerland Chapter and co-founded the IGDA Game Art Special Interest Group (SIG).